Camcorders forum: Mini DV to VHS Adapter?

When I recently purchased a mini DV camcorder at Microcenter, the salesman, who seemed to know his stuff, said with certainty that adapters are available that are the size of a VHS cassette, into which you can insert a DV tape, and then view in a standard VHS machine (similarly to the way VHS-C tapes work in adapters). He went further to say that the adapter has a chip to read the tape, and that these units cost about $30.

On the other hand, I've read an online article which said that no way no how is that possible.

Who is correct? Does such an adapter exist? Is so, please give me a manufacturer and/or model name/number.

We purchased a mini camcorder over 10 years ago when they first came out. We no longer have the camcorder and have since lost the adapter which allows you to place the small tape into a standard VHS cassette. We have dozens of video with no way to view them. Does anyone know where I can purchase a replacement. They definitely exist as we had one for years.

We purchased a mini camcorder over 10 years ago when they first came out. We no longer have the camcorder and have since lost the adapter which allows you to place the small tape into a standard VHS cassette. They definitely exist as we had one for years. I'm now looking for a replacement.

What you are using is a camcorder which recorders to miniVHS tapes. That is why you can insert the small tape from the camera into the full-sized VHS "adapter" and playback in a VHS player.

Bill is asking for a VHS adapter into which miniDV tapes can be inserted. MiniDV and miniVHS are different sized tapes and the information encoded on the tapes is different. The VHS you are using is an analog signal... MiniDV is digital (the DV stands for Digital Video) information. The VHS player would not know what to do with the digital information on the miniDV tape.

So...

Yes, there are adapters for miniVHS tapes to be played back in VHS machines (if you can find them).

No, there is no adapter for a MiniDV tape that will play in a VHS machine, though, as previously stated there are miniDV decks (expensive). It would be cheaper to get an inexpensive camcorder to be the play-back mechanism...

The AV cable plugs into the camcorder on one side. The other side will be RCA male connectors that will fit the RCA female connectors on the VHS recorder's AV-In jacks.

Yellow is composite video;Red is right audio; White is left audio.It is possible the camcorder does not do stereo audio - so the single mono-audio channel is usually black or whatever is left over (and not yellow).<div>LOCK THE TAPE in the camcorder. There should be a little tab on the spine of the tape cartridge.Camcorder in Play mode - but stopped.VHS tape recorder ready to record from the AV-in connectors. Some VHS tape recorders have multiple AV-In connections, so the correct one needs to be taking in the feed.Insert a blank recordable VHS tape, press record on the VHS recorder.Press Play on the camcorder.

If you press play on the camcorder first, you run the risk of missing some of the start of the camcorder playback.</div>

Of course it can be played back through the camera but there are reasons why someone would not want to do that. I was searching for this adapter when I came across this discussion. In my case the tv studio who owns the field camera does not allow playback on their cameras to preserve their cameras. Thanks to the poster who knows his stuff for letting me know I'm searching in vain.

adapter for a DVCPro format VTR - Video Tape Recorder. Not many people have these. The DVCPro format is a Panasonic-specific video format. The AG DVX100 camcorder could record to DVCPro format.

The second link is the full-sized VHS adapter for VHS-C (compact) tapes. As previously indicated, MiniDV format tapes will not fit and the digital video and audio information on the miniDV tape cannot be read by an analog VHS tape deck.

if there is an adapter it will be like the vhs c adapter were u put the cassette into the bigger adapter for play in a vcr,but a mini dv cassette adapter for play on an analog player ,i have looked online and cannot find it,,but you can send your tape out to have it digitized for editing online,and to dvd,,there are many better ways to read your tape,,vcr s are not the best way to view your digital content,,imovie is a great place to start,,ill keep looking for this adapter,,i would like to have one too if they exist,,,thnx

asking for being basically technically impossible is what Bob's trying to get you to.

The "DV" in miniDV tape = "Digital Video". There is an oxide (basically rust) that is bonded to the plastic ribbon we call tape. This is very similar to the way analog video tape is made and the way hard disc drives are made to store data. The heads in the digital camcorder writes a series of zeroes and ones basically the same as the zeroes and ones written to flash memory, hard disc drive and even DVD based storage media. These zeros and ones are very different from the analog signals store to analog tape used by analog camcorders. Digital tape decks and camcorders understand the zeros and ones and can interpret them and present the recorded digital video. The usually are not able to deal with analog video storage media (there are a few that cross, but not many).

VHS and VHS-C (and Hi8, Beta and others) are analog video format storage media. Their analog signals stored in the way of wave forms and not zeroes and ones. The analog video players understand these signals and have no idea what to do with the digital storage formats.

What you are asking for is a "cartridge" that is designed to allow an analog player (to read the analog VHS-C tape) to somehow allow digital tape to be used by an analog player. The analog player won't understand the zeroes and ones that make up the digital video on the tape even if you *could* custom-make such a cartridge. There are already methods to get digital video into a computer whether over firewire or using an analog/digital converter. There are already methods to connect an appropriate digital camcorder with an AV cable directly to a TV and use the camcorder as a digital deck. There are some digital decks available. But just as lots of things are not forward compatible, the VHS tape player from years ago was never designed to be able to deal with any digital formats. Sort of like asking for a CD with digitized music on it to be played by an analog turntable with a needle designed to play vinyl records - you can't get there from here, no matter how long you look.

Today you can marvel at things like the iPad 2 which can, in theory best supercomputers from 1990.

And it can beat the 1985 Cray 2 (cost was about 17 million back then.)

This is only part of the reason why I think it's possible to make some machine the size of a VCR cassette to hold the miniDV tape and do all the work needed to send a worked over signal to the VCR heads.

The effort surely would employ hundreds of engineers from computers to materials and motor specialists and if mass produced might break below 6 figures.

Almost anything is possible but we have to find those that would pay the price.Bob

Everyone is forgetting that a miniDV tape is only 1/4 the width of a VHS tape. The tape heads on a VHS machine are not of the same size and format to match the smaller tape. How in the world could the heads of a VHS machine read a miniDV tape? I guess we could install smaller miniDV heads into a VHS deck, by that would be silly. Why don't we try to play a VHS tape in a miniDV camcorder? Just as silly.

Mind you I'm talking very high tech here. Imagine a miniDV player inside a VHS Cassette case that plays the tape and using the compute engines that now fit their translate it to signals the VCR head can use.

Figure millions to develop. We have two buyers so far so there's no reason to think about doing it yet.

Bill,I had a video camera back in the 90's when my kids were small that used mini vhs tapes. It did indeed need an adapter in order to play back the video in a regular VHS player. It has been so long ago I do not remember the make or model, sorry. I hope it helps you just knowing there is such a thing.Vamom2

I was just wondering if you ever figured out how to play your mini dv? I hope so!! I have so many tapes laying around and I no longer have my jvc camcorder. I need a way to play these at least on a vcr.

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